


Finger Paints

by Skyler10



Series: Family Fic [9]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Humor, Kid Fic, Painting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-19
Updated: 2017-05-19
Packaged: 2018-11-02 10:05:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10942242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyler10/pseuds/Skyler10
Summary: Rose and Tentoo just got off a hard day at work, during which Jackie watched their three year old until they could join the family for a cookout at the Tyler mansion. Upon their arrival, they are a bit surprised to find their daughter has gotten very messy while they were away....





	Finger Paints

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Chocolatequeen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chocolatequeen/gifts).



> Based on the prompt from a kid fic prompt meme: "I think someone had an accident with the finger paints."

 

Rose was grateful to her mum for minding Piper today when her team got called into work on their day off, of course, but the drive was so far from Torchwood HQ. She’d forgotten in the ten years since she’d lived here. Luckily, it was beautiful weather, and she and the Doctor had gotten off earlier than expected since they weren’t even supposed to be in today. Now it was time for some of her dad’s famous grilling and an afternoon relaxing in her parents’ spacious back garden.   

Rose frowned as she turned the handle of the front door of the Tyler mansion. It was locked. 

“Must be around back already,” she said to the Doctor over her shoulder. 

“Could just sonic it.” He flipped the device in the air with a lazy twirl.

“Or we’ll go to the side gate,” she countered. She had no patience left in her today, and she was already desperately hoping he’d volunteer to put Piper to bed tonight. Speaking of whom…

They heard the three-year-old shouting and giggling, and Jackie’s “Gran” voice – soothing and playful, but still very much in charge.

“Do you think they’ll like it?” Piper was asking as her parents rounded the corner of the house to come into view of the back porch. A little table was set up, surrounded by a half dozen plastic cups and reams of poster-size paper.

Rose sighed as she caught sight of her daughter’s clothing. Completely ruined. Her little T-shirt was covered in blue, her denim skirt in pink, and her skin was a rainbow of streaks and splotches. Rose’s heart sank as she realized the T-shirt was one of Piper’s favorites. She already dreaded the tantrum that would come from having to throw it away.

“WHAT in the name of Rassilon?!” the Doctor exclaimed from behind her. 

“I think someone had a little accident with the finger paints.” Rose tried to put on a calm mum-smile but it was actually more of a stressed grimace.   

“Oopsie!” Piper shrugged her tiny shoulders and put on an innocent smile. When the Doctor and Rose just stared in shock at the mess around and on her, her bottom lip started to tremble, then the tears began to fall.  

“Oh, sweetheart,” Rose cooed and opened her arms. She bent down and Piper ran to her. Rose sighed again. Now her own clothes were likely ruined as well. But comforting her daughter was worth it, any day.

“I just wanted to make something for you,” Piper sniffed and looked up at her daddy with big, wet, dark eyes that matched his own in color and depth of soul.

“I’m sorry I shouted, princess.” The Doctor knelt down sheepishly next to his wife and daughter. “But you have to admit, you’re quite the mess.”

Jackie, who had been watching this exchange in devilish amusement finally piped up. “Oh, you plums, it’s  _washable finger paint_! You think I’d give a three-year-old something permanent?”     

The Doctor and Rose exchanged guilty smiles. They should have guessed.

“Oh. Right,” Rose replied, rising with Piper on her hip.  

“Found this stuff a few years ago for Tony,” Jackie explained further. “Bought some more last weekend just for our girl.”

Piper grinned at her gran. She loved when Jackie played with her and even more when it was something related to cool Uncle Tony.

“And it just comes out with soap?” The Doctor held his little girl’s hand in his own and examined her green and black and pink arm.

“I’ll show you,” Jackie offered. She retrieved her hand soap from the house and turned on a garden hose. Rose set down Piper on the grass, and the little girl giggled as the water hit her skin. With gentle rubbing, the child was (mostly) free of the paint on her skin.

“The clothes can just go in a normal wash. Won’t hurt anything,” Jackie promised.  

Rose raised an eyebrow but trusted her mum. Jackie shot her a look that clearly said Rose was being a classic first-time parent again and that Jackie knew what she was doing.

“Can I show you what I made?” Piper asked. They had all but forgotten the reason for the paint in the first place.

Jackie stood back as Piper guided her parents back to the table on the porch. She held up two paintings, one of a pink and yellow flower and the other of a blue rectangle.

“This one is for Mummy,” Piper explained, holding up the flower. “It’s a rose.”

It was closer in shape to a daisy, but Rose couldn’t have cared less what variety it approximated. It was her daughter’s gift to her and she adored it.

“It’s beautiful, darling!” Rose praised and kissed her daughter’s paint-globbed hair.

“And this one is for Daddy. It’s Tardy when she grows up.”

The Doctor’s jaw dropped. In real life, the coral in their spare room was still the size of a sapling tree. And very… coral-like, with branches and a glowing green trunk.

“How?” He could hardly form the words as he knelt down to receive the simple gift from his daughter. Rose’s hand flew to her mouth as her heart swelled with hope and love.    

“That’s what she looks like in my dreams,” Piper explained. “See the yellow? That’s the light on top. And the windows and the doors. That’s what she’ll look like when she’s ready to go places.”

Rose and the Doctor were speechless again, so their daughter continued.

“She talks to me sometimes. She says it’s going to be ok and that I need to be pai… payten… that we hafta wait.”

“Yeah,” the Doctor agreed. He swallowed back his emotion, but blinked rapidly, giving away his tears. “That’s what she tells me too.”

“Doctor,” Rose began, in awe of the realization, “they have a bond. That means…”

“That means,” he finished, hugging Piper tight, “that one day Piper Jane will be her pilot. We’ll never have to worry about what happens to the TARDIS when we’re old and gone. There will always be someone to take her on adventures and fly across space and time.”

He tickled the little girl, and she laughed loud. Music to the ears of her parents and grandparents.

Tony heard the sound right as he entered the garden to join the party. Piper ran off to play with him, leaving Jackie, the Doctor, and Rose on the porch.

“Another traveler, then? Guess it’s no surprise she’d have it in her blood too, with the two of you as parents,” Jackie lamented. “Not that I suspected any different. Born to cause trouble all over time and space, that one, just like her mum and dad.”

“Yes, she is,” Rose agreed with delight. She and the Doctor beamed in pride at their apparently telepathic part-alien offspring with her paint-covered clothes. They had been worried at what would happen if she turned out to hate the TARDIS or show no interest in traveling, or wasn’t telepathic enough to fly her alone. But now that they knew the coral had been communicating with her already, they had no doubt.

Everything was going to be alright. No, better than alright. The future would be…  _fantastic_.

 

 


End file.
